James was running. His body ached and his lungs were burning but he kept running. Kathrine was curled up in his arms, her thin body was shaking, and her face was white and still. Suddenly a strangled roar erupted from right behind him, he could practically feel the beasts breath down the back of his shirt as he ran through a overgrown forest trail. He stumbled, the uneven path throwing James off balance.
Kat tumbled out of his arms to the ground. As his vision faded to black, all he heard was the disgusting sound of flesh being ripped from bone.
And the screams.
James gasped, his eyes suddenly snapping open. "Its was just a nightmare", he told himself quickly, "It isn't real." Suddenly James became aware that he wasn't in the military houses on the army base. He was in a dirty, dusty looking room, there was almost no furniture and patches of wall paper were ripped off the wall. With an aching pang, James remembered his injuries, and the asian girl who had found him in a basement. A blurry figure moved in the corner of his vision, he was in too much pain to move, and focused on speaking clearly. "Takiko?"
Kat walked cautiously behind Jim as he walked out into the street. The burning smell grew stronger and thicker as she walked slowly behind him. She checked over her shoulder every few steps, afraid of the exposure that walking down an open street gave her. She could barely see Jim through the increasing thick smoke as he walked ahead. Suddenly she spotted movement, and it only took her a single glance to determine that Jim was running, with something close behind. Somehow Kat managed to swing her rifle into her hands and blot away at the sametime. Maybe in another time she would have seen a man run like that to win a race, or while playing sports, but now the only reason people ran was when something was chasing.
Kat hadn't strayed too far from the entrance, and it only took her a few seconds to make it to the mouth of the alleyway. In an instant she realised that wherever Jim was running, those creatures would follow him. "Lex!" she called, barely above normal speaking volume, as she ran towards the down. Her small voice was shaking with fear. She heard scrabbling footsteps behind her, and in an moment of panic Kat hauled herself into the half empty dumpster bin, letting the lid slam on top of her. Somehow, amongst all the fear and terror, she was still able to be thankful she had landed in a cardboard recycling bin.